Have you realised that you have social media accounts you’ve forgotten the login for? Been to a wedding recently and had your phone confiscated? COULD YOU BE SPENDING LESS TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA????

People are starting to get sick of being constantly glued to social media and our tech – let’s face it; we all have that friend/sibling/S.O. that just can’t put their phone down. It’s annoying, it’s distracting, it’s not mindful and people are forgetting that physical reality is their primary reality. Sure, we love tech! We love social media! But it should be a part of our lives only to point where it adds value, and people are now becoming oversaturated and realizing that, guess what, it can actually be detrimental (like anything can when you spend too much time on it and it affects personal relationships).

What does that actually mean for brands? Will consumers be browsing as much? Social is always going to be a source for visual information and staying connected with friends, but consumers are starting to remove themselves. As a company (and for our clients) we think it’s 100% SO important to gather information, inspiration, cultural knowledge and other learnings through social media – and Instagram is where that’s at for us at the moment. We’ve decided that, just like Craig David, we’re walking away – from Facebook and Twitter.

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH. Just because we’re a digital agency doesn’t mean we need to be on every. single. platform. Everyone’s digitally savvy these days – brands AND consumers. But it doesn’t mean you need to be all things to all people – you just need to use the platforms that are most suitable to your customers and your business. That’s why we’re doing what we do for our clients – strategically editing which platforms add the most value to our brand. And that’s why we’re leaving Facebook and Twitter.

FACEBOOK. Facebook. owns. everyone. Yes – we’re all still using it on a personal level (mainly chat tho), but as a brand the only way to get noticed is to spend $$$ and not get much in return except some inflated ad performance numbers. Over it.

TWITTER. All they’ve done recently is amend the character limit so that it doesn’t include images. You can’t even edit Tweets, and growing followers is time-consuming. Can you even remember the last time you tweeted?

WHERE YOU CAN FIND US FROM NEXT WEEK.Instagram – talking to our clients and other creative-minded professionals/lovers. LinkedIn – talking to our B2B audience/the wider industry.

The other week we hit up one of [Appear Here]’s regular Underground Sessions to have a sit-down with Jeremy Langmead (Mr Porter), Pandora Sykes (Sunday Times Style) and Georgina Harding (Semaine). The topic? Content, and why brand managers now need to be editors, too.

Every touch point you have, whether it’s your social media, your product descriptions, your website’s blog or your physical store, needs to nail the brand persona. Establish a voice for the brand (hey hello, what do you think we’re doing here with our thought pieces?). When every brand can have a voice via social – let’s face it – the market’s becoming pretty saturated (and mostly with crappy content).

So you get a content manager (or take on the role yourself). Starting point: what is your audience doing? Forget what kind of product you want to deliver, what you think they want. Take a broader perspective: what are they eating, where are they hanging out with friends, what TV shows are they watching, where are they going on holiday, what music are they listening to? The more involved you become with as many cultural influences as possible, the better positioned you are to create meaningful, engaging content that speaks to your audience. Bonus: it enhances your life too! And let’s face it, we’ve all been hanging out at the same places for too long. Time to change it up.

Next stop: question everything. Why is this interesting? What do I like (or not like) about it? How are other people reacting to/engaging with it? What could be done better? Is anything about it challenging my beliefs? There’s your starting point.

Social media (as we know it) is 13 years old; I’ve been a social media marketer for 8 years and have watched it grow into the crazy thing it is today. There are some amazing things that social has given us – connectivity, communities, Instagram filters that make you look great. But there’s a lot of crap out there too, rearing its head like a giant Internet monster. And everyone’s trying to make money$$$.

NARCISSISM IS ALIVE AND WELL

Overheard last week over drinks: “Anti-Selfie Movement”. Why is this the first time I’ve heard of it? A little (v. official) Google research shows that the #AntiSelfie Movement started in 2013 and is now…dead in the water. What could’ve been a well-founded campaign, and a creative stimulus, kinda screwed itself with the fact that the person(s) behind it decided to try and make money off of it by recording a song. How ‘bout no. (Side note: Ironic that they aspired to join the ranks of the actual selfie money-makers like Kim K.) Luckily (or unluckily, depending how you view it), selfies are here to stay. I posted a #selfie just yesterday, babes, and there ain’t nothing wrong with a little self love.

SELL ANYTHING – CLOTHING. A MENTAL ATTITUDE. YOURSELF.

You’ve seen them everywhere – hash-tag-positive posts reeking of false sincerity. A quote they didn’t write, ‘thankful’ and ‘blessed’ peppering every other sentence (btw this blogger and this news article nail it), a sexually suggestive photo with a ‘positivity’ caption that is entirely unrelated. Don’t get me wrong – I’m 100% for PMA but does it have to be ingested, chewed up and spat out through social media? By the way – your parents can see that #sexy pic, your friends’ parents and your colleagues too. Also, at the time of posting there are 56.9 MILLION posts using the tag #blessed.

#BLE$$ED#BLE$$ED

#BLE$$ED#BLE$$ED

#BLE$$ED#BLE$$ED

#BLE$$ED#BLE$$ED

#BLE$$ED#BLE$$ED

#BLE$$ED#BLE$$ED

EVERYONE IS A CEO/FOUNDER/ENTREPRENEUR/ALL OF THE ABOVE

Anyone can be the founder of a company. That’s the beauty of the startup age! But just because you thought of a brand name and set up social media channels for it doesn’t mean you’re a ‘CEO’. It means you can think of names and are capable of setting up social media profiles. Just like, oh, everyone else. Make it legit – at the very least you could register the company officially (£12 in the UK) – not saying that you should just so you can feel important. Don’t waste your time unless you have necessary funds to invest, know there’s potential business from it and how to actually run the business (or can pay people to do it for you – do you know anything about accounting?). Otherwise you’re screwed.

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR BRANDS THO

CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT DOESN’T JUST APPEAR OUT OF NOWHERE. You can’t invade the comments sections of people’s profiles and expect them to engage with you. They’re busy editing their next selfie. Create meaningful content that provokes reaction and interest from your target demographic.

CUT THROUGH THE CRAP. There’s so much social noise, and so many brands trying to get themselves out there. Your brand needs to be authentic. 100% unequivocally genuine.

WANT TO ACTUALLY START A COMPANY? Make sure you have a) an original idea for a product or service – but not a niche that’s so small you’ll never generate any business, b) a defined target market – how are you gonna reach your potential customers?, and c) strong brand and digital comms strategies in place (06:pm can help you out there, just sayin’).

WHAT NEXT THEN

You know there are incred positives to all of this – one of the best (imo) is that brands have access to anyone and everyone on social. Now, I don’t mean exploit their personal information, I mean TAKE YOUR CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT TO A NEW LEVEL. Everyone loves a selfie, so do your next campaign casting via Instagram à la Marc Jacobs. This is also a highly cost-effective way to cast a model, btw.

Take a cold, hard look at your social comms and ask yourself: is my brand REAL. Are we creating AUTHENTIC MESSAGES that REAL PEOPLE can relate to. IS EVERY OTHER POST AN #INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE. Maybe you need a new strategy.

Think you got a hot idea and want to start a company? GO FOR IT. But first figure out your company structure, do your research, pick a brand name (and make sure it’s available/register it on key social platforms). Then think about next steps.